We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Spoilers for “Absolute Wonder Woman” #16 follow.
The “Absolute” line shook up the DC Universe; Batman isn’t the only hero to have undergone huge changes. Al Ewing and Giuseppe Camuncoli’s “Absolute Evil” revealed that The Justice League of the “Absolute” universe is made up of major villains; the laws of man and the universe (constructed by Darkseid) are on their side, after all.
One of the members of this Justice League is National Security Advisor Veronica Cale, the main villain of “Absolute Wonder Woman” by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman. Cale has a prison, Area 41, filled with superhumans and she has decided to release these prisoners on Diana. The previous arc, “As My Mothers Made Me” (“Absolute Wonder Woman” #8-12) ended with a tease about who Cale would send after Diana: Zatanna, the magician who casts her spells by speaking backwards. (In Area 41, Zatanna’s mouth had a Hannibal Lecter style gag.)
In “Absolute Wonder Woman” #16, Zatanna acts against Diana at the Gateway City Museum, with a team of traditional Wonder Woman enemies supporting her: Giganta, Doctor Poison, and the Cheetah. (Apparently Diana’s friend Barbara Minerva doesn’t want to Again become the cheetah.) What are these imposing women called? The suicide squad!
DC Comics
The notion of Suicide Squad, who became movie stars over the past decade has been the government using imprisoned supervillains for black ops. (The name “Suicide Squad” dates back to the “Brave and the Bold” comics of the 1950s, but the team as it is known today was created by John Ostrander in the 1980s.) Usually, the Squad is the brainchild of Amanda Waller, not Veronica Cale, but Cale is a classic Wonder Woman villain. The biggest twist, however, is using a longtime hero like Zatanna as a villain.
Why Zatanna is Absolute Wonder Woman’s Next Perfect Enemy
This arc of “Absolute Wonder Woman” is called “Season of the Witch”, because there are now two witches in play on opposing sides. Unlike the classic Wonder Woman, this Diana was raised in Hell by the witch Circe, so she practices magic herself. (Wonder Woman even sacrificed, then restored, her right arm during a magical ritual.) This means that Zatanna, another witch who matches or might even surpass Diana’s skills, is a perfect opponent for her.
In “Absolute Wonder Woman” #14 (drawn by Matías Bergara), when Diana was fighting an echo of herself, she couldn’t surpass her perfect equal. Zatanna appeared in astral projection over the defeated Diana and cast a spell: “I bind you to me in my presence. Your voice is mine alone.”
As Zatanna spoke backwards, Diana didn’t immediately realize what had happened. Now, however, Wonder Woman understands that Zatanna can control and disable her magic. Wonder Woman’s trademark weapon is a lasso, but now the Suicide Squad binds her in Zatanna’s trap.
Created in 1964 by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, the classic Zatanna Zatara is a long-time member of the Justice League. She has yet to make the jump to DC films (director Emerald Fennell worked on a Zatanna film, now dead), but don’t think she’s a lesser hero because of that.
Despite being a real witch, Zatanna usually dresses like a stage magician, top hat and all. The “Absolute” Zatanna is more punk, wearing fishnets and a sleeveless leather jacket, and her skin is so pale that her color resembles undead gray. It’s a crackling recast, especially for a villain, but I don’t expect Zatanna to stay that way for long. (Her sexual tension with Diana, whom she calls “cute,” is worth pursuing.)
How Absolute Wonder Woman vs. the Suicide Squad Could Play Out
Until now, Diana’s mode of action has been to outwit or reform her enemies. (Well, apart from the enormous Tetracide, a monstrous personification of death, which Diana petrified with the help of Medusa.) In “Absolute Wonder Woman” #12, she faced Clea, Queen of the Labyrinth. Diana showed mercy to her enemy and freed her: “Time will tell if she can become something else with her freedom. And it will be my burden to bear if she cannot.”
As for Zatanna, maybe Diana doesn’t even need to change her mind, but to let him go. One of Cale’s treasures locked away in Area 41 is Starro, a mind-controlling alien parasite, and it’s implied that Cale is manipulating the Suicide Squad with implanted Starro tissue. Also note how Starro was the main villain of James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad.” a connection that might have helped inspire the reinvention of Thompson and Sherman’s Suicide Squad here. (Here again, “Suicide Squad” performs better than Wonder Woman’s usual alliance of villains: “Villainy Inc.”)
If Diana learns that the Suicide Squad isn’t willingly fighting her, it might make her hesitant to attack them all. But to protect the innocent, she may have no choice: Cale chose the museum as the site of the attack to ensure civilians would be put in danger. Even though Cale seems like an evil Diana who can’t redeem herself, don’t doubt that she will try. Wonder Woman’s bottomless kindness is her most magical quality of all.
